Actress de la Huerta pleads guilty in NY bar scrap

NEW YORK – Actress Paz de la Huerta admitted Thursday that she harassed a reality TV figure in a confrontation that authorities said was laced with ill will about their respective claims to fame.

"I'm extremely glad this is over," the "Boardwalk Empire" actress said after acknowledging in court that she threatened to hit Samantha Swetra in March at a bar at a chic Manhattan hotel.

De la Huerta pleaded guilty to harassment, a violation that is akin to a traffic ticket. Her plea deal calls for a day of community service and 12 weeks of alcohol counseling.

While the criminal case is ending, de la Huerta still faces a lawsuit from Swetra, a fashion buyer who appeared on the MTV reality series "The City." Swetra's lawyer, Stephanie Ovadia, said she would continue "to pursue the case vigorously."

De la Huerta, who on Thursday declined to discuss the encounter, was accused of punching Swetra in the face, giving her a bloody nose, and tossing a glass that left cuts in Swetra's leg at around 4 a.m. March 20 at the Standard Hotel.

De la Huerta, who plays a lead character's girlfriend in HBO's "Boardwalk Empire," then made some cutting remarks about Swetra to police, according to a criminal complaint.

"I'm a real actress — HBO. She's a publicity-seeker, a fake actress," de la Huerta said, according to the document.

Swetra appeared in several episodes of "The City." The show followed Whitney Port, a star of MTV's Los Angeles-based reality hit "The Hills," as she moved to New York to work for designer Diane von Furstenberg.

Swetra still has breathing problems because of injuries to her nasal bone during her encounter with de la Huerta, Ovadia said.

De la Huerta plays politician Enoch "Nucky" Thompson's fiery girlfriend, Lucy Danziger, on the HBO series, set in a Prohibition-era Atlantic City, N.J. The 26-year-old actress has appeared in films including "The Cider House Rules," ''A Walk to Remember" and "The Limits of Control."

She is headed to Toronto in the coming weeks to star in the forthcoming thriller "Nurse 3D," about a dedicated nurse with a dark side. The second season of "Boardwalk Empire" begins airing in September.

"The audience will get a chance to see the real Lucy — Lucy stripped of all her makeup — and, hopefully, be compassionate of what she goes through," de la Huerta said of her character, who was revealed to be pregnant as the first season ended.